January 2012 marked the 10th South Florida Insectweight
combat event from Gulf Coast
Robot Sports (GCRS). Since March
2009, veteran robot builder Jim
Smentowski has been hosting these
events every 2-3 months at The
Robot MarketPlace store in
Bradenton, FL. They usually average
15-25 bots ranging from 150 grams
to three pounds. Robot builder and
announcer extraordinaire, Seth Carr,
has set up a live webcast of recent
events so audiences from around
the world — even friends from
Puerto Rico and Canada — can sit at
home and root for the South FL
builders via comments on the feed
as they settle the score in the 8 x 8
arena.

In the summer of 2010, GCRS 5
marked the first Insectweight event
for our team — Busted Nuts

● by Andrea Suarez

Robotics — after years of building
120 lb bots. After several weeks
of building our new robots, we
loaded up the car and started the
3. 5 hour trek from Miami to
Bradenton. We pulled into The
Robot Marketplace and were
instantly welcomed by the familiar
enthusiasm for new competitors
and new bots that is so common in
this sport.

Eleven year old Reid Kauffman
joined the GCRS group for his first
robotics event at GCRS 9. He
brought his own Antweight robot —
a modified RC car with a custom
Lexan wedge body — and
competed as his friends cheered
him on. He was eager to learn as
much as he could from all the
competitors and he came back with
an added ice pick weapon for GCRS
10. He even challenged a
Beetleweight, DejaVoodoo, to a
grudge match.